TODAY IS…

the day to make sure we get nourishment from the vine.

“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me, you can do nothing.”  John 15:5 NASB

Napa Valley, California is one of the best grape growing regions in the world. It is beautiful country with the right climate, the right conditions, and the right people. The wine produced from grapes grown there is among the best that can be found anywhere.

We won’t find vineyards just anywhere in the world, but in those places where grapes do flourish, we find that grapevines are very prolific plants and each vine supports many, many branches, which in turn yield many bunches of grapes.

Successful vineyards do not simply occur.

They require a lot of care and attention. Branches that are dead, which do not produce fruit, need to be cut off to make room for those branches that do produce fruit. Those productive branches must also be pruned to enable them to then produce even more fruit.

Christ compares Himself to the vine.

Each one of us represents a branch that is attached to the vine. Unlike the grapevines, the vine of Christ can – and does – grow everywhere in the world where there are people. Like the branches of the grapevine, we are dependent upon Christ, our vine, for nourishment. God, the master gardener, watches over every branch. Like any good gardener, He wants everything to bear fruit, but He sadly recognizes that sometimes certain branches just seem to resist nourishment and die.

Having received the message about the salvation offered to us by Christ on the cross, we must now do all we can do to continue to draw our nourishment from Him. Jesus tells us, “Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.” (John 15:4 NIV).

We require a constant connection with Christ in order to receive the spiritual nourishment we need that will allow us to bear the fruit that will glorify God.

Remain rooted in the Word of God, continue to grow and flourish as a Christian and help others find out how they, too, can grow with the spiritual nourishment that comes from having a constant connection to the vine that is Jesus Christ.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson